Method and system for suggesting meals based on tastes and preferences of individual users

ABSTRACT

A system and method for generating meal suggestion messages using an expert system and then pushing those suggestions to users. Meal suggestions are tailored to users based on their tastes and preferences. Users specify preferences related to a diet plan, food preferences, meal time preferences, and meal preparation preferences. An expert system considers each user&#39;s preferences and nutritional data to generate meal suggestion messages consistent with the user&#39;s preferences and dietary goals. Meal suggestions are pushed to the user according to the user&#39;s preferred time for eating each meal. The user can accept or reject the suggested meal or one or more foods within a suggested meal. For rejected meal suggestions, a meal substitution message is generated and sent. The expert system uses accepted and rejected meal suggestions to determine if certain foods or entire meals should no longer be recommended to individual users or to system users as a whole.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/117,190, filed May 8, 2008, titled METHOD FORTAILORING STRATEGY MESSAGES FROM AN EXPERT SYSTEM TO ENHANCE SUCCESSWITH MODIFICATIONS TO HEALTH BEHAVIORS, which is incorporated herein byreference and is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/856,917 filed Sep. 18, 2007 titled SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR REWARDING USERS FOR CHANGES IN HEALTH BEHAVIORS, which isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a system and method for assisting withthe maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits. More particularly, thepresent invention is a system and method for assisting with themaintenance of a healthy diet by pushing meal suggestions from an expertsystem to individual users wherein the meal suggestions are generatedusing the personal preferences of the system users both individually andcollectively.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many people are affected by a variety of health problems includingobesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol levelswhich can be linked to poor habits in diet, exercise, and the like.Although people are generally aware that controlling diet, exercise, andsimilar lifestyle habits is the easiest way to become or stay healthy,getting them to adopt and maintain these habits is a difficult task.Many people do not have access to information or to systems or methodsthat can effectively assist them in these challenging endeavors.

There are many well-known diet and exercise regimes. When using theseknown regimes, however, individuals must determine what to eat and whento eat as well as calculate the calories they have consumed (e.g., bydetermining the calorie count of all foods or adding points that aretied to the calorie counts of certain foods) and they must keep anexercise record and determine the caloric impact of their exercise ontheir overall regime. Another problem with current diet and exerciseregimes is that they restrict severely the types of food individuals canconsume or the types of activities in which they are guided toparticipate. This lack of variety causes individuals to becomefrustrated with their regimes and to give up before they haveexperienced their desired results.

There are a few known methods and systems for assisting individuals withthe maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits, but these methods andsystems are expensive and often inaccessible to most people. Forexample, a highly effective method for assisting individuals indeveloping and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits is found through theuse of coaching. Research has shown that individuals are more successfulin the difficult endeavor of changing their habits and maintaining new,healthier ones when they are coached throughout the process. Coachingkeeps individuals motivated, provides positive reinforcement, andintroduces a narrowly-tailored plan for each individual participant.However, obtaining a reliable human coach is difficult and oftenprohibitively expensive such that relatively few individuals areactually able to use one. In addition to purchasing the services of ahuman coach, it has been shown that the services of a personal chef, whois trained in preparing healthy meals, and/or those of a nutritionist,who is able to develop a personalized diet plan, are successful methodsfor an individual to be assisted in maintaining healthy lifestylehabits, but these methods are also expensive and thus inaccessible tomany.

In an attempt to make the services of coaches, nutritionists, personalchefs, and the like accessible to those who could not afford themotherwise, many books have been written and/or home videos produced thatfocus on disseminating the type of expert information these individualstypically offer their clients. Unfortunately, those who invest in thesebooks and/or videos are noticeably less likely to maintain the healthylifestyle habits they aim to encourage than those who invest in theactual expert services. The mass marketed materials are aimed at a wideaudience and cannot meet the needs of each individual purchaser. Thedifference that actual health and fitness experts can provide is theability to provide their clients with appropriate plans and strategymessages with modifications tailored to the individual thereby reducingor eliminating the various barriers to success.

In light of these foregoing problems with known systems and methods,there is a need for a generally affordable and accessible system andmethod that assists in the maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits byproviding individual users with a diet and exercise regime specificallytailored around their personal preferences so that they are notrestricted to the point that they become frustrated thus discontinuingtheir practice of the regime's healthy habits. Additionally, there is aneed for a system and method that assists individual users indetermining what foods they should be eating, when they should beeating, and/or in what activities they should be participating. Thesystem and method should account for an individual user's preferences,including preferences for meal preparation. Furthermore, the system andmethod should provide individual users with personalized guidance andstrategy similar to that which can be provided by health and fitnessexperts in order to maximize the probability that individuals willsuccessfully maintain healthy lifestyle habits.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIVE CONCEPT

The present invention is a system and method for assisting with themaintenance of healthy lifestyle habits by generating meal suggestionmessages using an expert system and then pushing those suggestions toindividual users. The system and method allow diet plans to be tailoredto individual users based on their preferences and provides consistentand appropriate strategy messages including meal suggestions designed toencourage and motivate users toward successfully maintaining healthylifestyle habits. The system and method utilizes modern technologies,such as the cellular phone or other portable device, to facilitate thepushing of the tailored messages from the system's computer-based expertsystem to the individual users.

Individual users complete initial assessments that detail eachindividual's food and physical activity preferences. These assessmentsare then used to compile profiles for each individual that are stored ina database. The system and method use the profile information in thedatabase to generate individualized messages that are pushed toindividual users through a system incorporating cellular technologies.Tailored meal suggestion messages are pushed from a computer basedexpert system to an individual user's cell phone at predetermined timeseach day. The message generated by the computer-based expert systemprovides an individual user with a healthy suggestion for his or hernext meal based on the type of food he or she indicated to havepreferred as well as the preferred preparation option designated whencompleting the initial assessment.

The system and method can be interactive and an individual user canrespond to meal suggestions by either accepting or rejecting thesuggestions with a reply message. The computer-based expert systemanalyzes reply messages generated by individual users. For example, ifan individual user indicates a desire to reject a given suggestion in areply message, the computer-based expert system detects that desirethrough analysis and generates a new message for the user that containsa different suggestion designed to replace that which the user hadpreviously rejected. Likewise, if an individual user indicates in areply message a desire to accept a given suggestion, the computer-basedexpert system detects that desire through analysis of the reply.

The system can use information regarding accepted and rejectedsuggestions for a variety of purposes. For example, if the systemdetects an individual user consistently rejects suggestions to eat acertain meal the system will cease to generate such suggestions for theindividual. Additionally, if the system detects that the majority of itsusers consistently reject suggestions to eat a certain meal the systemwill cease to generate such suggestions for all users. The system cantrack separate ingredients that individual users tend to incorporateinto their meals as well as those that individual users tend to reject.The system can use the records of ingredient acceptance and rejection asa means of determining if and when certain ingredients should no longerbe recommended to individual users or to system users as a whole. Bytracking meals and separate ingredients that have consistently beenaccepted and rejected by its users, the expert system is able to makemeal suggestions for its users that they will likely enjoy. Whenindividual users are satisfied with the foods they are eating, they aremore likely to follow the plan and reach their diet and exercise goals.

The system and method also tracks the actions and progress of individualusers. For example, if an individual user desires to lose weight, thesystem monitors the food the individual consumes to determine the impactof the meals on the individual's goal. The monitoring function andupdating of information in the database helps to ensure that the systemsends messages that are appropriate for each individual user as theirhabits and/or preferences change and as they progress toward a goal. Thesystem generates messages praising users as they attain their goals andprovides motivational messages to users that stray from their goals. Thesystem also assists users with formulating new goals as well asstrategies as may be needed.

The system and method is both affordable and accessible to many usersbecause it is operated via applications to prevalent and relativelyinexpensive modern technologies. The system and method addressesproblems inherent in the prior art and makes the key to good healthaccessible in an original and novel way.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the physical structure of a system according to anexample embodiment;

FIG. 2A-2L are screen shots for completing a user profile and specifyingpreferences according to an example embodiment;

FIG. 3 is meal contact logic according to an example embodiment; and

FIG. 4 is suggestion generating logic according to an exampleembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One exemplary embodiment is a “smart system” designed to encourage andmotivate users towards successfully maintaining healthy lifestyle habitsby pushing tailored meal suggestion messages from a computer basedexpert system to individual users via cellular technologies. The systemincorporates the personal preferences of individual users in regard todiet, exercise, and other similar habits in conjunction with personalinformation such as age, weight, gender, and desired results as well asbehavioral challenges in order to generate tailored messages to assistindividual users with the adoption and maintenance of healthy lifestylehabits.

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the physical structure of the system.Each of the connections mentioned here permit data to flow in bothdirections. A laptop or desktop personal computer 100 is connected tothe server 120 through the internet 110. The user may connect to awebsite to create an account and enter personal information andpreferences for creating a profile. The server 120 is connected to oneor more databases 122, 124 comprising user data, nutrition provider data(nutritional data related to meals offered by a plurality of mealproviders), diet, and exercise data, message data, progress data,compliance data, restaurant, shopping, and entertainment establishmentdata, reward data, and other data as may be required to provide thefeatures and functionality of the present invention. The server 120 isconnected to communication networks 130 (comprising various datatransmitters and receivers) through the internet 110. The various datatransmitters and receivers of the communication networks 130 facilitatecommunications with the user's portable technology 140 which includescellular or mobile phones, personal digital assistants, or any otherportable device capable of sending and receiving communications throughthe communication networks 130 and displaying them for a user. An expertsystem at the server uses the individual's account information,including information about the individual's mobile phone, to tailor andsend to the individual messages to reinforce and motivate healthyhabits.

In an example embodiment, the expert system is constructed using theJ2EE programming language in conjunction with a SQL based database (likeMicrosoft SQL Server or Oracle DB). AJAX, Active X, and Java componentsmay also be used to handle various aspects of the system. The mobilecomponent of the overall system is constructed using the J2MEprogramming language sending wireless requests to the expert system overcommon carrier communication protocols. Communication between the mobilecomponent and the expert system is constructed using XML languagestructures.

Referring to FIGS. 2A-2L, screen shots for completing a user profile,specifying diet and exercise preferences, and identifying healthbehavioral challenges in an enrollment process according to an exampleembodiment are shown. The user provides contact and backgroundinformation, specifies a weight goal, specifies preferences related todiet and exercise, and identifies personal behavioral challenges. Theuser's profile data and specified goal and diet and exercise preferencesare considered by the expert system to tailor messages. The useraccesses a website to navigate through the screens and provide data andinformation that allows the system to build a profile for the usercomprising diet and exercise preferences as well as behavioralchallenges.

Referring to FIG. 2A, a screen for specifying physical characteristicsand a weight goal is shown. The user specifies a sex, age, weight, andheight and a goal weight 200. This information is saved in the user'sprofile and used to determine the user's progress toward the goal. Theexpert system generates tailored messages that help the user to progresstoward the specified goal.

Referring to FIG. 2B, an account screen for an example embodiment isshown. First, as shown in FIG. 2B1, the user specifies a username,password, and email address to create an account 202. Next, the userprovides contact information 204. The user also provides informationabout his or her mobile phone or other portable device so that messagesfrom the expert system can be pushed to the portable device 206 as shownin FIG. 2B2.

Referring to FIG. 2C, a diet plan screen for an example embodiment isshown. The user specifies the type of diet plan he or she would like tofollow. In an example embodiment, the user may select from one of threediet plans 208. A first plan is a balanced plan that emphasizes a dietof reduced calories as well as reduced fat and sugar. A second plan is ahealthy carbohydrate plan that emphasizes a diet of lean meats, fish,dairy, and nuts. A third plan is a Mediterranean plan that emphasizes adiet of fish, grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts.

Referring to FIG. 2D, a food preference screen for an example embodimentis shown. The user selects a food category and identifies the foods ineach category that he or she does not like or wants to avoid 210. In anexample embodiment, the categories include: 1) meats, poultry, and fish;2) beans, nuts, and seeds; 3) grains and soy products; 4) fruit; 5)vegetables; 6) dairy; and 7) condiments and dressings. Within eachcategory, the user can select from a list the foods he or she does notwant to eat. Alternatively, an entire category of food can be selected.Finally, if the user does not find a particular food on any list withina category, the specific food can be entered in a text box 212. As theuser types, choices matching the entered text are presented. Foodsidentified in the text boxes as well as foods selected from the categorylists are not included in any menu or meal suggestions that are providedto the user.

Referring to FIG. 2E, a meal times screen according to an exampleembodiment is shown. The user specifies a time of day for eatingbreakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as a snack 214. The user specifiestwo sets of meal times, one for weekdays and one for weekends. Referringto FIG. 2F, a meal preparation preference screen according to an exampleembodiment is shown. On this screen, the user specifies preferencesrelated to meal preparation options 216. Using a drag and drop feature,the user specifies meal preparation preferences for breakfast, lunch,and dinner on weekdays and weekends 218. In an example embodiment, themeal preparation options are: 1) quick and easy (fewer than 10 minutesto prepare); 2) cook at home (more than 10 minutes to prepare); 3)frozen or ready to eat; 4) fast food; or 5) order from restaurant. Themeal preparation preferences provide additional data for the expertsystem to consider when generating messages to the user related to mealsuggestions.

Referring to FIG. 2G, a behavior challenges screen according to anexample embodiment is shown. The screen in FIG. 2G1 presents commonchallenges to a healthy lifestyle 220 and allows the user to select theones that are applicable. The user is also asked to identify thechallenge he or she would like to overcome first (a priority challenge)222. Finally, the screen presents a list of strategies for overcomingcommon challenges 224 as shown in FIG. 2G2. The user is asked to selecta strategy that is appropriate for the user's lifestyle. The user'sselections related to applicable challenges, a priority challenge, and achallenge strategy are considered by the expert system in generatingtailored messages.

Referring to FIG. 2H, an activity screen according to an exampleembodiment is shown. The user provides information about his or hercurrent activity level 226 and exercise frequency 228. In addition, theuser indicates whether he or she smokes 230. The user's selectionsrelated to current activity level, exercise frequency, and smoking areconsidered by the expert system in generating tailored messages.Referring to FIG. 2I, a workout screen according to an exampleembodiment is shown. Using a drag and drop feature, the user identifiespreferred physical activities 232 and specifies times for performing thephysical activities on a weekly basis 234. The preferences related tophysical activities and times are considered by the expert system ingenerating tailored messages.

Referring to FIG. 2J, a profile overview screen according to an exampleembodiment is shown. The screen in FIG. 2J1 presents informationregarding the data and preferences specified by the user whilecompleting the profile data entry screens. A nutrition section comprisesthe user's selections related to a diet plan and specific foodpreferences 236 as well as meal preparation preferences 238. A weightsection comprises the user's personal data related to current weight andbody mass index as well as goal weight and proposed rate of weight lossper week 240 as shown in FIG. 2J2. A fitness section comprises theuser's selections related to physical activity preferences 242 as shownin FIG. 2J1. A behavior section comprises information about the user'spriority challenge and preferred strategy from overcoming the challengeshe or she specified previously 244 as shown in FIG. 2J2.

Referring to FIG. 2K, a daily plan screen according to an exampleembodiment is shown. The daily plan screen as shown in FIG. 2K1 presentsa complete schedule of activities and meal suggestions based on thepersonal data and preferences specified by the user previously 246. Inthe example schedule, the user takes a weight reading at 7:00 AM, eatsthe suggested breakfast at 7:30 AM, completes the suggested activity at8:00 AM, and eats the suggested lunch and dinner at the specified times.The daily plan screen also presents food substitution suggestions in theevent the user does not want to follow the initial meal suggestion 248as shown in FIG. 2K2. The user can select any ingredient in thespecified meal suggestion and select a substitution. The ability tosubstitute ingredients in a specified meal allows the user change themeal only slightly or to change the entire meal to meet his or herpreferences at mealtime. Finally, the screen may display a goal weight250 as shown in FIG. 2K1. Referring to FIG. 2L, a diet plan screenaccording to an example embodiment is shown. At this screen, the usercan review the weekly meal suggestions 252 and complete anysubstitutions prior to receiving the meal suggestions on at the mobilephone or other portable device.

Referring to FIG. 3, meal contact logic according to an exampleembodiment is shown. Referring to FIG. 3A, the user's specifiedpreferences 300 and enrollment weight 302 are considered by the computerbased expert system in generating meal suggestions. The user's specifiedpreferences 300 (provided during enrollment) include an individualuser's diet plan, food preferences, meal times, meal preparationselections, etc. The starting or enrollment weight 302 is the weightentered by the user at enrollment when he or she starting using thesystem. Once the computer based expert system has generated menus for anindividual user according to preferences, a weekly menu message 304 ispushed to the user. Because of the size of the message, the weekly menumessage is emailed from the computer based expert system to theindividual user. It could also be delivered via a text message to anindividual user's cell phone, etc. A user may also receive a weeklyweight prompt message 306 for reporting any weight change during theprevious week.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the meal contact logic of the system and methoduses daily phone contacts 310 through 316 that are sent to an individualuser before he or she eats a meal. The daily phone contacts 310 through316 are sent approximately thirty minutes before a scheduled meal. Thedaily contact breakfast message 310 asks the user to indicate whether heor she is going to eat the suggested breakfast (e.g., from an earlierreceived weekly menu message). The responses include a “Yes” response320 indicating the user plans to eat the suggested meal, a “No changemeal” response 322 indicating the user would like an entirely differentmeal, or a “No change item” response 324 indicating the user would liketo substitute one or more items in the suggested meal. If the userselected the “yes” response, a positive message and reminder of theuser's goal is sent 350. If the user selects either “no” response 322,324, the expert system accesses a database of meal and menusubstitutions and suggests either an entirely new meal or one or morefood substitutions 352. The new suggestions conform to the user's foodpreferences and meal preparation preferences as well as dietary needsfor meeting the target goal. A reminder message for the user's goal isalso sent 354.

Similar logic applies to the user's lunch 312 as well as dinner 314 anda snack 316. The user is asked whether he or she intends to follow theplan 330 or whether he or she would like a different meal 332 ordifferent items in the meal 334. If the user follows the suggestion, apositive message is sent 360 and if the user changes the meal, newsuggestions consistent with the user's preferences are sent 362. Atcompletion, an AXM? Message is sent to the user 364. The daily phonecontacts 310 through 316 can be used to remind an individual user whatfoods he or she needs to be eating to reach the desired goal.

As shown in FIG. 3C a weight loss support message 370 may be sent fromthe computer based expert system to an individual user. The message maybe sent twice a week, ninety minutes before dinner. A weight losssupport message may remind the user of the week's progress toward thegoal, provide the user with tips on what he or she might do to increasethe likelihood of reaching the goal, etc.

Referring to FIG. 4, suggestion generating logic according to an exampleembodiment is shown. Meal suggestions are generated 400 and sent to user402 in advance of each meal. Each meal suggestion corresponds to anindividual's preferences regarding a diet plan, food preferences, andmeal preparation preferences. For example, a user that prefersfrozen/ready to eat meals for lunch will receive a lunch time mealsuggestion for a frozen or ready to eat meal consistent with the user'sselected diet plan as well as food preferences. If the user previouslyidentified a dislike for beef, the meal suggestion will not include abeef entrée.

The positive 404 as well as negative 406 meal suggestion responses ofindividual users are recorded and analyzed 410, 412 in order to makesystem adjustments in meal suggestions to be generated in the future. Inresponse to suggestions that a user rejects, the system generates a mealsubstitution message based on the user's preferences 414. By processingreplies to the personalized messages, the system is able to update itsdatabase as to the tastes and preferences of each individual user aswell as the overall user population. The tracking of separateingredients as well as complete meals accepted or rejected by usersallows the system to alter future meal suggestions based on the recordedtastes and preferences.

Any embodiment may include any of the optional or preferred features ofthe other embodiments. The exemplary embodiments herein disclosed arenot intended to be exhaustive or to unnecessarily limit the scope of theinvention. The exemplary embodiments were chosen and described in orderto explain the principles so that others skilled in the art may practicethe invention. Having shown and described exemplary embodiments, thoseskilled in the art will realize that many variations and modificationsmay be made to affect the described invention. Many of those variationsand modifications will provide the same result and fall within thespirit of the claimed invention. It is the intention, therefore, tolimit the invention only as indicated by the scope of the claims.

1. A computerized method for providing meal suggestions to a userconsistent with said user's dietary preferences, comprising: (a)receiving at a computer from a user personal and dietary preferencedata, said personal data comprising contact information and said dietarypreference data comprising a diet plan selection, food preferences, mealtime preferences, and meal preparation preferences for said user; (b)accessing at said computer a computer accessible database comprisingdietary and nutritional data for a plurality of foods and recipes toidentify foods for a meal consistent with said user's diet planselection, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences; (c)generating at said computer a primary personalized message comprising ameal suggestion for said user, said meal suggestion consistent with saiduser's diet plan selection, food preferences, and meal preparationpreferences; (d) determining at said computer a time for sending saidcomputer-generated message consistent with said user's meal timepreference for eating said meal; (e) automatically sending from saidcomputer to said user's cellular device at said time saidcomputer-generated primary personalized message comprising said mealsuggestion message to said user using said contact information; (f)receiving at said computer from said user's cellular device a userresponse to said primary personalized message; (g) generating at saidcomputer a secondary personalized message responsive to said userresponse; and (h) automatically sending from said computer to saiduser's cellular device said computer-generated secondary personalizedmessage.
 2. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein said userresponse to said primary personalized message comprising meal suggestioncomprises a response selected from the group consisting of: anacceptance of said meal suggestion a request to replace said mealsuggestion, and a request to modify said meal suggestion.
 3. Thecomputerized method of claim 1 wherein receiving at said computer saiduser response to said meal suggestion comprises receiving a positiveresponse.
 4. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein receiving atsaid computer said user response to said meal suggestion comprisesreceiving a negative response.
 5. The computerized method of claim 4further comprising: (g) generating at said computer a secondarypersonalized message comprising a meal substitution, said mealsubstitution message consistent with said user's diet plan selection,food preferences, and meal preparation preferences; and (h) sending fromsaid computer to said user's cellular device said computer-generatedsecondary personalized comprising meal substitution to said user.
 6. Thecomputerized method of claim 5 wherein said meal substitution comprisesa suggested substitution for a food item in said meal suggestion.
 7. Thecomputerized method of claim 5 wherein said meal substitution comprisesa suggested substitution for an entire meal in said meal suggestion. 8.The computerized method of claim 2 further comprising: (g) recordingsaid user response to said primary personalized message comprising saidmeal suggestion; and (h) updating said food preferences for said userbased on said user response to said meal suggestion.
 9. A computerizedsystem for providing meal suggestions to users consistent with saidusers' dietary preferences, comprising: a first computer accessibledatabase comprising personal and dietary preference data for a pluralityof users, said personal data for said plurality of users comprisingcontact data for sending messages to said users and said dietarypreference data comprising diet plan selections, food preferences, mealtime preferences, and meal preparation preferences for each of saidplurality of users; a second computer accessible database comprisingdietary and nutritional data for a plurality of foods and recipes; acomputerized expert system for analyzing dietary preference data forsaid plurality of users from said first computer accessible database anddietary and nutritional data from said second computer accessibledatabase and for generating meal suggestion messages for each of saidplurality of users based on analysis of said diet plan selections, foodpreferences, and meal preparation preferences for each of said pluralityof users and said dietary and nutritional data; and a server connectedto said computerized expert system for: (a) sending saidcomputer-generated meal suggestion messages to cellular devices saidplurality of users, wherein said server sends said meal suggestionmessages according to said meal time preferences specified by each ofsaid plurality of users; and (b) receiving from said cellular devices ofsaid plurality of users acceptance or rejection responses to said mealsuggestion messages; wherein said computerized expert system: (1)analyzes said acceptance or rejection responses to update said foodpreferences for said plurality of users; and (2) generates additionalmessages for said plurality of users consistent with said updated foodpreferences for said plurality of users; and (3) transmits to saidcellular devices of plurality of users said additional messages.
 10. Thecomputerized system of claim 9 wherein said meal suggestion messages aredelivered 15 minutes in advance of each of said plurality of users'preferred meal time.
 11. The computerized system of claim 9 wherein saidadditional meal suggestion messages are meal substitution messages. 12.The computerized system of claim 11 wherein said meal substitutionmessages comprise suggested substitutions for food items in said mealsuggestion messages.
 13. The computerized system of claim 11 whereinsaid meal substitution messages comprise suggested substitutions forentire meals in said meal suggestion messages.
 14. The computerizedsystem of claim 11 further comprising a meal suggestions application atsaid server for use by said users to review a plurality of mealsuggestions and to complete modifications to said meal suggestions. 15.A computerized method for providing meal suggestions to a userconsistent with said user's dietary preferences which may be alteredover time, comprising: (a) receiving at a computer from a user personaland dietary preference data, said personal data comprising contactinformation and said dietary preference data comprising a diet planselection, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences for saiduser; (b) accessing at said computer a computer accessible databasecomprising dietary and nutritional data for a plurality of foods andrecipes to identify foods for a meal consistent with said user's dietplan selection, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences; (c)generating at said computer a meal suggestion message for said user,said meal suggestion message consistent with said user's diet planselection, food preferences, and meal preparation preferences; (d)automatically sending from said computer said computer-generated mealsuggestion message to a cellular device for said user using said contactinformation; (e) receiving at said computer from said cellular device auser rejection to said meal suggestion message; (f) updating saiddietary preference data based said user's rejection of said mealsuggestion; (g) generating a substitution meal suggestion message basedon said user's diet plan selection, food preferences, and mealpreparation preferences; and (h) automatically sending from saidcomputer said substitute meal suggestion to said user cellular device.16. The computerized method of claim 15 wherein: (i) generating at saidcomputer a substitution meal suggestion message for said user comprisesgenerating a message with substitute ingredients for said mealsuggestion.
 17. The computerized method of claim 15 further comprising:(i) generating at said computer a substitution meal suggestion messagefor said user comprises generating a message substituting allingredients in said meal suggestion.
 18. The computerized method ofclaim 15 further comprising: (i) determining at said computer if aplurality of users have rejected an ingredient in said meal suggestionmessage; and (j) updating said database comprising dietary andnutritional data to eliminate said ingredient from additional mealsuggestion messages sent to said plurality of users.